NFB open house offers public final chance to tour old studios
National Film Board's Montreal headquarters moving to new building in Quartier des Spectacles next fall
On Sunday the National Film Board is opening the doors of its Montreal headquarters to the public for one last time. Next fall, the NFB will be moving to a new building downtown, in the Quartier des Spectacles.
When the building on Côte-de-Liesse Road opened in 1956, it was a state-of-the-art film production studio — the first of its kind in Canada.
The four-hectare complex of six separate buildings was modelled on a Hollywood film studio. One building was for wardrobe and costumes. Film was developed in another. A third housed a giant sound stage — a soundproof, hangar-like building big enough to house multiple sets.
When the building opened, to test that the sound stage was indeed soundproof, the NFB had the Royal Canadian Air Force fly a CF-100 plane over the building at a height of 150 metres.
Among the films shot there were Jacques Godbout's IXE-13 and Pierre Falardeau's Octobre, as well as the television show Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin.
The NFB's new downtown home is to take up six floors of a new 13-storey building on Bleury Street.
At 104,000 square feet — or about the size of six-and-a-half hockey rinks — the new headquarters will house production facilities for animation, documentary and interactive production. In addition, there will be a photo library, archival space and a 135-seat theatre.
The open house is on Sunday, Sept. 30, from 10:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be guided tours and screenings, including a chance to try out a virtual reality headset.
Here is a sneak peek of what you can expect to see on Sunday.
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